Skin patches conventionally used in a medical and sanitary field, a sports field, or the like are attached on or rolled around a person's skin, thereby exhibiting the effects of medical treatment for a target part, prevention of injury, or the like (Non-Patent Literature Documents 1 and 2).
As such skin patches, there are two kinds of skin patches including a skin patch in which a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is formed on one face of a support and that has no release liner, and a skin patch in which the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is formed on one face of the support and the release liner is pasted so as to cover the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, and both of these are rolled around a rolling core or the like and provided as roll-like products.
Among the above skin patches, the former skin patch that has no release liner can be obtained as a roll-like skin patch without deviated rolling by performing rolling while the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed on the support is bonded to the face (hereinafter referred to as the back face of the support) of the support opposite to the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer. However, since there is no release liner that covers the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, there has been a possibility that, when the skin patch is pulled out during use, a person's hands, fingers, or the like come into direct contact with and become soiled by the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, or the fats on the person's hands, fingers, or the like may adhere to the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, which results in a decrease in adhesive force. Additionally, in the skin patch that has no release liner, generally, release treatment is performed on the back face of the support so that the skin patch is easily pulled out. However, there are problems in that writing or printing for performing marking or the like is difficult on the back face of the support subjected to such release treatment, or peeling-off is apt to occur if the skin patch is overlappingly pasted.
On the other hand, in order to solve the above problems, generally, the latter skin patch that has the release liner has been known. That is, in such a skin patch that has the release liner, the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is covered with the release liner. Therefore, even if the skin patch is pulled out during use, there is no concern that a person's hands, fingers, or the like may come into direct contact with and become soiled by the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, or the adhesive force of the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer may decrease. Additionally, since it is not necessary to perform the release treatment on the back face of the support, writing or printing can be performed on the back face of the support, and there is no concern that peeling-off may occur even if the skin patch is overlappingly pasted. However, since slippage over the back face of the support that comes into contact with the release liner occurs easily if the skin patch having the release liner is rolled into a roll, there is a problem in that deviated rolling, unrolling, or the like occurs and it is difficult to hold a roll-like form.
In order to solve such problems, there is disclosed a single face pressure-sensitive adhesive tape provided with release sheet as described in Patent Document 1, in which one face of a single-face release sheet subjected to easy-release treatment is joined to a tape support via pressure-sensitive adhesive, and the other face of the single-face release sheet that is not subjected to easy-release treatment is formed with a resin layer having the property of being stuck to the tape support in a re-releasable manner. However, since resin having a sticking property is present in the release sheet, the release sheet easily sticks on a person's hand or fingers during use, and may be hard to use. Additionally, in a case where the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape with a release sheet in which the above-mentioned resin layer is formed on the whole surface of the release sheet is rolled while the release sheet comes into contact with the tape support, even if an attempt is made to pull out the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, there is a problem in that a staring point for pulling-out cannot be obtained, and the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is not easily pulled out.
Additionally, Patent Document 2 discloses that a slightly pressure-sensitive adhesive face is provided on the hack face of a release material, or pressure-sensitive adhesive is provided in the shape of a line or a dot. However, since a material having a pressure-sensitive adhesiveness is formed on the back face of the release material, there is a problem in that the back face of the release material sticks on a person's hand or fingers during use and it is hard to use.
Moreover, a finishing end edge that is a rolling stop portion of the roll body of the band-like patch formed by rolling is apt to be loosened, and a method of performing fixing using a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape or the like so that the finishing end edge is not loosened is used (refer to Patent Document 3).
However, in the method using a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, the extra work of cutting the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape to a desired size or attaching the cut pressure-sensitive adhesive tape on the finishing end edge of the roll body is required. Since such a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is peeled when the band-like patch is used and is discarded as trash after peeling, this is not environmentally preferable.
Generally, when the band-like patch in which the support, the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, and the release liner are laminated is rolled around the rolling core, it is necessary to fix a starting end edge of the band-like patch at the beginning of rolling to the rolling core so that the band-like patch does not slip off the rolling core. As methods of fixing the starting end edge of the band-like patch to the rolling core, there is a method (refer to Patent Document 4) of fixing the starting end edge of the band-like patch, using an article in which a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is formed in advance on the whole surface of the rolling core, or a method (refer to Patent Document 3) of fixing the starting end edge of the band-like patch to the rolling core, using a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape.
However, in the method of using an article in which a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is formed in advance on the whole surface of the rolling core, a pressure-sensitive adhesiveness is given to the surface of the rolling core itself. Therefore, there is a case where the surface of the rolling core having a pressure-sensitive adhesiveness sticks on a worker's hands, fingers, or the like, and the workability when the rolling core is handled becomes worse. Additionally, if the article in which the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is formed on the whole surface of the rolling core is kept as it is, there is a possibility of dust or the like sticking on the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer formed on the whole surface of the rolling core during storage, and the article being not good sanitarily.
On the other hand, in the method using a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, if the band-like patch is rolled into a roll after being fixed to the rolling core by attaching the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, there is a case where the patch in the vicinity of the rolling core deforms (takes on an unwanted appearance) in the shape of the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape attached and a patch with poor appearance is obtained. Additionally, in order to fix the starting end edge of the band-like patch to the rolling core using the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape, extra work of cutting the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape to a proper length and attaching the cut pressure-sensitive adhesive tape on the starting end edge of the patch and the rolling core is required.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-9-53058    Patent Document 2: JP-UM-54-84356    Patent Document 3: JP-UM-7-6252    Patent Document 4: JP-UM-3-107464    Non-Patent Document 1: http://ntmed.co.jp/taping/index.html    Non-Patent Document 2: http://ntmed.co.jp/medical/index.html